By Over the past few years, Democrats have become the party of war, and in the Senate, they announced that they not only want to send your sons to battle. They want your daughters, too.
The Senate National Defense Authorization Act, approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, included an amendment that would force women between the ages of 18 to 25 to sign up for the Selected Service, just as men that age are required to do.
The New York Times reports that Democrats have once again decided to use the military for their social experiments.
The United States military has not activated a draft in more than 50 years, but Congress is weighing proposals to update mandatory conscription, including by expanding it to women for the first time and automatically registering those eligible to be called up.
The proposals making their way through the House and Senate stand a slim chance of becoming law, and none would reinstate the draft compelling service right away. But the debate over potential changes reflects how lawmakers are rethinking the draft at a time when readiness issues have risen to the fore and as the Pentagon is facing recruitment challenges amid a raft of risks and conflicts around the world.
The House last week passed an annual defense policy bill that, along with authorizing $895 billion in military spending including for a 19.5 percent pay raise for troops, contained a bipartisan proposal that would make registering for the draft automatic. At the same time, a Senate committee last week approved a version of the Pentagon policy bill that would expand the registration requirement to women. Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island and the chairman of the panel, has championed the draft parity proposal.
Current law requires most men between the ages of 18 and 25 to register with the Selective Service, the agency that maintains a database of information about those who might be subject to military conscription, commonly referred to as a draft. The program is aimed at allowing military officials to determine who is eligible as a conscript in the event that Congress and the president activate the draft, which last happened in 1973 at the end of the Vietnam War.
Led by Senator Roger Wicker, a senator from Mississippi, Republicans laid into Democrats over the move and have begun working to remove the provision from this year’s military funding, putting the pressure on so-called moderate Democrats like Jacky Rosen of Nevada and Jon Tester, who’s locked in a tight race in Montana, to choose between their party and America’s daughters.
The Hill writes that Wicker, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he’ll try to strip it out of the bill.
“I’m opposed to that. I don’t think this is the time to get into a debate on the floor of either house about that. We’re not anywhere near implementing a draft, and to me it’s a distraction when we need to be talking about real issues that are immediate,” he said.
“I hope it will fall out, either on the floor or in conference,” he added.
Nevada Republican Sam Brown, who is running against Rosen and recently gained Donald Trump’s endorsement, has begun making the drafting of women an issue in the Silver State.
An Army veteran who was severely burned by an IED explosion, Brown slammed Rosen in a video for voting to require women to sign up for the draft.
“Look at my face. This is the high cost of war,” he said, “Amy and I volunteered to serve, and we honor all who serve. But forcing America’s daughters to register for the draft is UNACCEPTABLE. Shame on Jacky Rosen.”
Look at my face. This is the high cost of war.
Amy and I volunteered to serve, and we honor all who serve. But forcing America’s daughters to register for the draft is UNACCEPTABLE.
Shame on Jacky Rosen. pic.twitter.com/Myry82U2cl
— Sam Brown (@CaptainSamBrown) June 15, 2024
The last time the nation conscripted its youth to serve in the military was at the very end of the Vietnam War, in 1973.
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